Saturday, June 27, 2015

Family Bonding, Famous Sisters, and Fleeing from Tornadoes: My Non-Working June Life

If you've read this blog at all in the past 6 weeks, you know that my entire life has been taken over by my position with Orientation at Bridgewater State University (it's just the nature of the orientation beast!) since mid-May. Yesterday, we concluded out 6th and final session and with the Orientation Leader banquet this afternoon, we are pretty much done with the program! There are a few things that I have to wrap up but soon I will be leaving BSU for good and moving to the next chapter of my SA journey! :) I'll be dedicating my next blog post completely to my experience with Orientation, but for now, here's a bit of what my life outside of work has been like!

Before our first session, way back at the beginning of the month, Brett and I went out with my new friend Kacie (who was another intern for the Orientation program) and her boyfriend, Matt! They're two awesome people and we had fun having a few drinks and chatting with them through the night (even though Kacie and I were basically falling asleep after a long week of prep for the first session)! In the morning, Brett and I stopped by our favorite ice cream spot in the area, Hanson Farm, and visited the new calf named Peach Blossom (she was born the day before my birthday!). It was the perfect way to relax before the craziness of sessions.

The weekend after the first session (June 13-14) was family time to the extreme. Saturday Brett and I spent time with his neice and nephew. We had so much fun playing with them (building blanket forts, playing video games, soccer, and Littlest Pet Shop!) and it was beautiful out so it was perfect! It's crazy to see how much little Sophia has grown up since the last time we saw her!

Sunday we traveled up to NH because my mom was racing in her very first triathlon! This has been something that she has been wanting to do forever and has been training so hard for, so I definitely wanted to go up and support her on one of my days off! The race was at a really cool YMCA camp in Merrimack and it was set up in a way where we could see her in all three legs! I also made her a sign to cheer her on. It was so cool to see her accomplish a goal that she had set for herself and worked so hard for. She's awesome! :)

There was a tepee at the camp, so we obviously had to take a picture.

Finisher!

Brett was awesome (duh) all through this month supporting my exhausted self, and his family was also being so supportive through my busy schedule. When I came home after session 3 (June 15-16), his mom brought home these AMAZING Italian cookies from the store and it was such an amazing treat to have after a long two days. YUM.

I'm sure you've all heard of the terrible shootings down in Charleston, and you've probably seen the image of the shooter below plastered all over the news. The crazy thing about this image is that my sister is the officer on the right (the suspect is being held at the jail she works at). Her face is now all over the news as a part of one of the most used images of this case. It's so weird to see her standing right next to the man that brought so much pain to so many people, but seeing this image is definitely a reminder of one of the biggest reasons she got into the field that she works in - to help prevent things like this from continuing to happen.

Last weekend was on the low-key end, which was something I certainly appreciated. I kicked up my feet and spent some time with Brett & friends on Friday night to unwind. Saturday I made the trip out to my new hometown to sign the lease for my new apartment and opened up a P.O. Box, so I can officially become a resident and start the next chapter of my life! Very exciting. :) When I returned to Brett's house we baked cookies and started reading the first book in the A Song of Ice & Fire series, because apparently we can't live too long without Game of Thrones in our lives in some capacity.

Sunday was Father's Day and we had originally planned on driving back up to NH for Ribfest and to see my dad run a race, but he actually ended up being sick and since it was pouring out he didn't want to push his immune system any further. Though it was sad we didn't end up getting to see him on Father's Day, it was good to not have to drive anywhere and to spend a rainy morning in bed finally finishing the last episode of MadMen as well as polishing off the newest season of Orange is the New Black. Hooray for lazy Sundays!

On the second day of session 5 (June 23) we were greeted with a Tornado Warning in Massachusetts, which is always terrifying because we do not get tornadoes in this area and if we were to ever actually see a tornado we probably wouldn't know what to do and would likely get sucked up into the sky. Kacie, Katelyn (another girl who works in our office), and I decided to take shelter at our local bar and figured the best way to go out is with a $4 margarita in our hands (I mean, c'mon...). The storm was right on top of Bridgewater and though we were graced with a huge downpour, thunder and lightening, and the satellites getting knocked out, we did not see an actual tornado. It was pretty exciting though!

Wednesday I headed up to Mount Holyoke to meet with HR and finalize some fun paperwork items and spend some more time with my new colleagues! They took me out to a sushi lunch (YUM) and showed me more of the Hogwarts-like campus that will be my new home away from home. They are such a kind and down to earth crew of people and I am very excited to start working there in a little over a week (so crazy)! Check out how happy I am to have my official MHC ID! :)

And, as I mentioned, this past Thursday & Friday was our 6th and final session of orientation. I was getting a bit nostalgic as Kacie and I cruised around campus in the golf cart. It's really sad that these are my final days being part of the BSU community, but I'm happy that I've had so many amazing opportunities here. This institution has done amazing things for me and I will always remember BSU as being one of the most important stepping stones in my career. Ugh, just thinking of it now I'm getting all sappy! It's so bittersweet to be leaving, but I'm definitely looking forward to where my career will take me next!